


Excerpts from the Stargate Command Style Sheet for Mission Reports

by Mara



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-12
Updated: 2010-07-12
Packaged: 2017-10-10 12:56:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/100017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mara/pseuds/Mara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is Penknife's fault, I swear. By the way, I welcome additions to this style sheet, if you have any thoughts on what this poor editor must see every day.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Excerpts from the Stargate Command Style Sheet for Mission Reports

**Author's Note:**

> This is Penknife's fault, I swear. By the way, I welcome additions to this style sheet, if you have any thoughts on what this poor editor must see every day.

1) Report Length  
Do _not_ try any tricks with font size, margins, or line spacing to make your report longer or shorter. I have seen them all. Really. Even the one where you change the leading.

5) Voice  
Reports must be written in the active--not passive--voice. That is, "my team blew up the enemy's bunker" is correct. "The enemy bunker was blown up" is only correct if you could not identify the culprit even under oath during a court martial.

On a related note, please use pronouns such as "I" and "we." "I took my team deeper into the temple," for example. If I read one more sentence like "the team went deeper into the temple," I will scream. At you.

6) Tense  
Reports should also be in the past tense. You are giving a formal report of an event that occurred in the past, not telling the story over your third beer at Joe's Crab House.

Correct: We went west through the forest...  
Incorrect: So we're going west through the forest...

(Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis for missions involving time travel or alternate dimensions.)

8) Numbers  
Please spell out numbers from zero to nine. Numbers 10 and above should be numerals. If one more smartass asks me about imaginary numbers, I will not be responsible for my actions.

Equations should be set off from text with spaces and indentation. I will not edit equations, so you're on your own there. (But be aware, if you don't edit your own equations and McKay or Carter catches an error, you'll never hear the end of it.)

10) Titles  
The military has official titles and approved abbreviations for a reason. You may not refer to Gen. O'Neill, the UN, or the president of the United States as TPTB. Or the Big Cheese

12) Punctuation  
We use the serial or Oxford comma. For example: Gen. Hammond called the Pentagon, the White House, and the CIA.

Yes, I really care about this. And it doesn't matter if that makes me a geek, because you still have to get my approval on mission reports.

20) References  
References should strictly adhere to Chicago style. Since I don't trust a single one of you to do that correctly, just give me as much information about where you found it as you can and I'll write the damn thing.

However, it is a rare occasion that a mission report will require a reference. (For technical briefs, please see the relevant style sheet.) This means that you had better have a damn good reason for putting one in.

I will no longer edit references to comic books, Heinlein novels, or episodes of Wormhole X-treme! Anyone who includes them from now on will find that their reports have been translated into Urdu.

21) Other Issues  
Not every sentence needs to have multiple words in italics. Really. I swear that I'm going to kill anyone who insists on italicizing every single goddamn word in their report.

In a similar vein, once you start putting quotation marks around every "questionable" word in your report, it loses all "meaning." "Quotation marks" are only for--get this--quotations.

22) Spelling and Capitalization  
Please check Merriam-Webster for hyphenation and proper spelling of more common words. You may use http://www.m-w.com if you don't have a dictionary in your office. Below is the SGC-preferred spelling for words that do not appear in Merriam-Webster. Pay special attention to the placement of apostrophes, as they are there for a reason. You may not simply throw in an apostrophe any old place.

Ancient  
Asgard (Not "little grey men")  
Asuran  
DHD or dial-home device  
GDO (Not "garage door opener." Why? Because it sounds dumb, that's why.)  
Genii (Not "traitorous bastards," even if they are.)  
Goa'uld  
Jaffa  
kree  
Lantean system  
MALP or mobile analytic laboratory probe (Not "canary in a coal mine.")  
naquadah  
Ori  
Prior  
Re'tu  
stardrive (Not a generic term, even if it's lowercase.)  
Stargate (Not "ring of the Ancestors" or "swimming pool".)  
symbiote (Not "snake" or "junior" or whatever bloody term Gen. O'Neill has invented this week.)  
Tok'ra  
Tollan  
tretonin  
Wormhole X-Treme! (I live in hope that nobody will ever have to write about this again.)  
Wraith (Not "vampires" or "ugly mo-fos". Yes, Mitchell, I'm looking at you.)  
za'tarc (Not "brainwashed traitor" or "Carter's boyfriend")  
zat'nik'tel (Two apostrophes. Put them in the right place or fear my wrath. And no "zat gun," please. Is this the Wild West?)  
ZPM or zero point module (Yes, McKay, you can say "zed pee em," just don't write it.)


End file.
